The Daily Telegraph, February 29, 2008 Newseum Image

February 29, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the London, England newspaper, The Daily Telegraph:

Prince Harry to return from Afghanistan

By ANDREW PIERCE and NATALIE PARIS 

Prince Harry is being pulled back from the front line in Afghanistan with immediate effect as senior generals fear he is a prime target for the Taliban.

The Ministry of Defence has announced he will be withdrawn amid concern that media coverage would impact on the safety of troops as well as the Prince himself.

A spokesman described the exposure given by Australian, German and American websites to the Prince's secret role as "regrettable" but said that contingency plans had always been in place.

"Whilst it had been intended that Prince Harry should return in a matter of weeks with the remainder of the Household Cavalry Regiment Battlegroup, the situation has now clearly changed," he said.

"This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier."
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Hartford Courant, February 28, 2008 Newseum Image

February 28, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Hartford Courant:

Icon Of The Right
Entertaining, Erudite Voice Of Conservatism

By RINKER BUCK 

William F. Buckley Jr., whose impish smile and rich diction defined American conservatism for half a century, died Wednesday at his waterfront home on Wallacks Point in Stamford.

Buckley, 82, who had been in failing health in recent years and had mostly withdrawn from the public life that made him famous, was found dead by his cook.

Since 1951, when he published his first book, "God and Man at Yale" -- a scathing indictment of the agnosticism and socialist leanings he found as a student at Yale -- Buckley was a lively figure in American intellectual life, positioning himself as a conservative sea wall against what he considered an infectious liberalism eroding the national character. From that base, the tireless and glib Buckley launched a remarkable life trajectory -- founding National Review, the biweekly conservative bible, hosting for 33 years the weekly television show "Firing Line," dabbling as a conservative gadfly in politics and, in midlife, reinventing himself as a global adventurer and the author of best-selling spy novels.
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The Plain Dealer, February 27, 2008 Newseum Image

February 27, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Cleveland newspaper, The Plain Dealer:

Clinton-Obama debate at Cleveland State focuses on health care, Iraq and free trade

By PATRICK O'DONNELL 

The two Democratic candidates for president, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, faced off Tuesday night in their last showdown before Ohio's primary next week, each challenging the other's records while highlighting the small differences in their approaches to health care, the Iraq war and free trade.

Clinton and Obama debated for 90 minutes at Cleveland State University's Wolstein Center. Skipping opening and closing remarks, they fielded questions from NBC broadcasters Brian Williams and Tim Russert the entire time.

Twice Clinton had more of an issue with Russert than her opponent, once suggesting he was taking an easy approach to him and once accusing him of straying into hypothetical, not real, issues.

Though the candidates disagreed on several issues, they both praised the other at the debate's close while saying they would do a better job as president.

"The reason I think I'm better as the nominee is that I can bring this country together," Obama said. "I think in a unique way, across divisions of race, religion, region. And that is what's going to be required in order for us to actually deliver on the issues that both Sen. Clinton and I care so much about."
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Chicago Sun Times, February 26, 2008 Newseum Image

February 26, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Chicago Sun Times:

Clothes make the controversy

By LYNN SWEET

WASHINGTON -- An Associated Press news picture of Sen. Barack Obama trying on local garb during a 2006 visit to Kenya was posted on the Drudge Report on Monday, triggering testy exchanges between the Clinton and Obama campaigns.

The dustup over the picture -- which had previously been on various Internet sites and featured in a U.S. tabloid paper -- comes as Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) debate today in Cleveland. The Drudge Report said the photo was circulated in an e-mail by unidentified "Clinton staffers," which prompted Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to call it "fear-mongering" and "divisive politics." Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said it was "outrageous" to finger the Clinton campaign for circulating the photo and said as far as he knew, they had nothing to do with it.

Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams' retort to Plouffe: "If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said he was aware of the picture before Monday; he had spotted it in the National Enquirer and then found it on various Web sites. He said the issue for the campaign was "the motivation behind the circulation" of the picture.
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Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2008 Newseum Image

February 25, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Los Angeles Times:

And the Oscar didn't go to Hollywood
Europeans, and two iconoclasts from Minnesota, stand out. Even the best song beat a blockbuster.

By JOHN HORN 

Hollywood took on a new role in Sunday's 80th annual Academy Awards: bit player.

In a series of startling upsets and a few expected triumphs, almost all of the top Oscars were handed to foreigners and iconoclastic show business outsiders. Every one of the evening's winning actors came from beyond American borders, and the ceremony's dominant film -- best picture winner "No Country for Old Men" -- was created by a pair of filmmaking brothers from Minnesota who have never made a mainstream movie in their three-decade career.

In an era when overseas revenue accounts for more than half of a movie's income, the percentages were tilted far more heavily toward foreigners throughout the awards show, with an especially strong showing from Europe.
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Nepszabadsag, February 22, 2008 Newseum Image

February 22, 2008: The Budapest, Hungary newspaper, Nepszabadsag, reports on the embassy attacks in Belgrade. Here is an excerpt from a story on the BBC Web site:

Serbian fury erupts in Belgrade 

By NICK HAWTON 

For two hours the streets of Belgrade were not the place to be.

Gangs of marauding youths, many with their faces covered, smashed windows, turned over cars and attacked passers-by. For a time the police were nowhere to be seen.

The massive, peaceful demonstration outside the Serbian Parliament to oppose Kosovo's independence had moved off towards Saint Sava's Cathedral for a special church service for Kosovo.

But a few thousand moved away from the main column and headed to the embassy district, attacking Western businesses along the way.

The United States embassy, the prime target, was stormed and set on fire. Again, the police were nowhere to be seen.

Red and orange flares lit up the night sky. One protester hauled the American flag down from a balcony above the main entrance.

The British, German, Croatian, Turkish embassies were also attacked with rocks and bottles. A car was overturned and torched.
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The New York Times, February 21, 2008 Newseum Image

February 21, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The New York Times:

For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk

By JIM RUTENBERG, MARILYN W. THOMPSON, DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and STEPHEN LABATON

WASHINGTON -- Early in Senator John McCain's first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client's corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself -- instructing staff members to block the woman's access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist's client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.
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The Washington Post, February 21, 2008 Newseum Image

February 21, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Washington Post:

McCain's Ties to Lobbyist Worried Aides
Before 2000 Campaign, Advisers Tried to Bar Her

By JEFFREY H. BIRNBAUM and MICHAEL D. SHEAR 

Aides to Sen. John McCain confronted a telecommunications lobbyist in late 1999 and asked her to distance herself from the senator during the presidential campaign he was about to launch, according to one of McCain's longest-serving political strategists.

John Weaver, who was McCain's closest confidant until leaving his current campaign last year, said he met with Vicki Iseman at the Center Cafe at Union Station and urged her to stay away from McCain. Association with a lobbyist would undermine his image as an opponent of special interests, aides had concluded.

Members of the senator's small circle of advisers also confronted McCain directly, according to sources, warning him that his continued ties to a lobbyist who had business before the powerful commerce committee he chaired threatened to derail his presidential ambitions.
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The Miami Herald, February 20, 2008 Newseum Image

February 20, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Miami Herald:

Castro: A life of few regrets, no apologies

By GLENN GARVIN

''I believe that one has to be consistent right up to the end,'' Fidel Castro wrote in his resignation letter Tuesday, and he was.

The world may long argue whether he was a communist or a social reformer, a murderous tyrant or a visionary savior, but no one will ever doubt he was a shrewd survivor who left power just as he ruled: on his own terms.

Defying the expectations -- and, in many cases, the hopes -- of an eternally bemused world, Castro bowed out not a step or two ahead of an enemy tank or a mob of angry voters, but on a timetable of his own choice, handing Cuba over like a family heirloom to his little brother.

He outlived the Soviet Union, the nation that inspired him, succored him and sometimes betrayed him. He outlasted nine U.S. administrations that tried, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, to topple him. He outstayed dozens of other dictators, from Augusto Pinochet to Saddam Hussein, who came and went while he ruled in Havana.
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South Florida Sun-Sentinel, February 20, 2008 Newseum Image

February 20, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Fidel Castro gives up Cuba's presidency

By RUTH MORRIS, RAY SANCHEZ and DOREEN HEMLOCK 

HAVANA - Almost half a century after seizing power in a guerrilla war, the iconic and combative Fidel Castro quietly ceded command of communist Cuba on Tuesday, ending his rule as the world's most tenured government leader.

The news met with low expectations for political change, however, among Cuban-Americans, Cubans on the island and U.S.-based analysts, even as the country's parliament prepares to pick a new president this weekend.

Fidel Hernandez, of West Palm Beach, walked into the Havana Restaurant to order breakfast and made little of the day's news.

"It's going to be the same," said Hernandez, who wore a red and blue baseball cap bearing a Cuban flag. "Nothing's going to change."
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el Neuevo Herald, February 20, 2008 Newseum Image

February 20, 2008
el Nuevo Herald (Miami)




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La Opinion, February 20, 2008 Newseum Image

February 20, 2008
La Opinion (Los Angeles)





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Hoy, February 20, 2008 Newseum Image

February 20, 2008
Hoy (New York)






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Green Bay Press-Gazette, February 20, 2008 Newseum Image

February 20, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

McCain, Obama win Wisconsin primary
Illinois senator's momentum continues with his Wisconsin primary victory

By TONY WALTER 

Sen. Barack Obama's resounding victory in Tuesday's Wisconsin presidential primary has stamped an exclamation point on the wave of momentum his supporters think will carry him to the Democratic Party's nomination six months from now.

Obama, the Illinois senator who has piled primary victory upon primary victory in the first two months of 2008, won the Badger state with 58 percent of the vote, easily outdistancing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who collected 41 percent of the vote with 91 percent of precincts in the state reporting.

As expected, Sen. John McCain of Arizona ran away with the Republican race, collecting 55 percent of the votes statewide to his challenger, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's 37 percent.

The distribution of all of the Democratic Party's 92 Wisconsin delegates won't be known until the vote totals are tallied in each congressional district. Tuesday's popular vote will determine the proportional split of 74 delegates, with the remaining 18 left to super delegates.

But Tuesday's results left Obama backers with an election night high.

"I haven't been this excited since Gaylord (Nelson) won in 1958," said 73-year-old veteran Democrat John Brogan of Green Bay, referring to Nelson's gubernatorial election. "This is the first time that we really have a chance to elect a transforming figure. It's the sense he gives people, that he'll approach things on a different basis."
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The Honolulu Advertiser, February 20, 2008 Newseum Image

February 20, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Honolulu Advertiser:

Obama wins Hawaii in a landslide

Advertiser Staff

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, who was born and raised in Hawai'i, won the state's Democratic presidential caucus in a landslide yesterday. Obama had 28,347 votes, or 76 percent, to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's 8,835 votes, or 24 percent, with 100 percent of the precincts reporting.

Those are the vote tallies contained in what the party is calling "the preliminary final" results. A recount is scheduled for March 1 before the final results are released.

Hawai'i Democrats turned out in record numbers at the party's caucuses to help settle the nomination fight between Obama and Clinton of New York.

Obama ran television and radio advertisements in the Islands and talked about his local roots to help distinguish himself from Clinton, who sent her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, to campaign for her in the state.

The caucuses drew a surge of new Democrats, including many who registered to vote and joined the party just last night.
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Kleine Zeitung, February 18, 2008 Newseum Image

February 18, 2008: The Graz, Austria newspaper, Kleine Zeitung, reports on Kosovo's declaration of independence. Here is an excerpt from a story on the BBC Web site:

Kosovo MPs proclaim independence
Kosovo's parliament has unanimously endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia, in a historic session.

Celebrations went on into the night after Prime Minister Hashim Thaci promised a democracy that respected the rights of all ethnic communities.

Serbia's PM denounced the US for helping create a "false state".

A split later emerged at the Security Council, when Russia said there was no basis for changing a 1999 resolution which handed Kosovo to the UN.

Seven Western countries said it was quite clear the situation had moved on.

Tens of thousands of people had thronged the streets of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, since the morning.

When news came of the declaration in parliament, the centre of the city erupted with fireworks, firecrackers and celebratory gunfire.
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The Daytona Beach News-Journal February 18, 2008 Newseum Image

February 18, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Daytona Beach News-Journal:

Last-Lap Charge
Winless since '05, a push propels Ryan Newman in Daytona 500

By KEN WILLIS

DAYTONA BEACH -- It's definitely the biggest ornament in the racing life of Ryan Newman, who once looked like he was putting together a decorative career.

"Don't have the words; it's awesome," Newman said after his Daytona 500 win Sunday.

We'll have to wait to see whether this launches him back into the front-runner's status he enjoyed before the slump of the past two years.

It's also a long, long, long-awaited moment for a member of auto-racing royalty -- Roger Penske, the legendary team owner and international business mogul who has dominated that other 500 in Indianapolis, but could never crack the code here.

"This goes to the top of the charts for Penske Racing," said the Captain.

But we also know this: The Daytona 500 hasn't built a half-century of thick and rich drama on winners alone.
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Daily Chronicle, February 15, 2008 Newseum Image

February 15, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the DeKalb County, Illinois newspaper, the Daily Chronicle:

Campus Horror
Former student kills 5 students, then himself at NIU

By KEVIN P. CRAVER and BENJI FELDHEIM 

DeKALB - Northern Illinois University students and staff are shocked and looking for answers after a lone gunman killed five students and wounded 16 others Thursday before shooting himself.

Shortly after 3 p.m., a man dressed in black entered an auditorium in Cole Hall and began firing a shotgun at students toward the end of a geology class, according to university officials and eyewitness accounts.

Three victims and the gunman died at the scene, and two others later died: one at Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb and the other at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, NIU President John Peters said.

Peters did not reveal the identities of the victims late Thursday, pending notification of families, but said four of the victims were women.

One of the dead has been identified as Dan Parmenter, a sophomore from Westchester and a staff member of the NIU school newspaper, an adviser for the paper said Thursday night.

"He was a wonderful young man, just very nice, very easy to work with. (He was) somebody who was part of our family," said Maria Krull, business adviser for the Northern Star newspaper.

What is known about the gunman late Thursday is that he was an NIU sociology graduate student in spring 2007, said Peters, who added that the gunman apparently has no police record and there was no known motive for the shootings as of Thursday evening. Peters also said the gunman was currently enrolled at another school.
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Northern Star, February 15, 2008 Image from newspaper's Web site

February 15, 2008: An excerpt from an editorial in the Northern Illinois University school newspaper, the Northern Star:

NIU has lost members of family

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

On Thursday afternoon NIU was attacked by a gunman who selfishly killed himself after reaping the kind of terror we could only have hoped we would never know.

But now we do know that terror, and the pain and questions wrought from it are as perplexing as trying to figure out how or why someone could ever do such a thing in the first place. The range of emotions the NIU community will experience and will continue to cycle through is difficult to control, but a few come to mind before anything else.

Anger, pain, fear, frustration and disbelief were all in abundance among the NIU family on Thursday as news of the tragedy spread. As the police took control of the situation, students, faculty members, parents and spouses were left to begin the overwhelming process of coping with this attack on our community, on our family.

(See also: "Covering a Tragedy: NIU."
Fresh Cut video magazine, Feb. 17, 2008.)
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Chicago Sun-Times, February 15, 2008 Newseum Image

February 15, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Chicago Sun-Times:

Wounded prof tells his story

BY ANDREW HERRMANN

Northern Illinois University grad student Joseph Peterson was about ten minutes from finishing a geology class he was teaching, lecturing from a stage. Suddenly, a tall white man dressed in dark clothing appeared about 40 feet away from him.

And "just started firing away," Peterson told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The man had pulled out what appeared to be a shotgun and fired from the stage at about 150 students, Peterson said Thursday from a hospital, where he was being treated for a shoulder wound.

"He must have come from a back door," said the shaken, 26-year-old Peterson. "He was right there on stage."

Some students "ran and screamed" from Cole Hall, others crawled out on their bellies while still others ducked for cover, he said.

The gunman "just shot randomly," said Peterson. Students said the shooter said nothing as he opened fire.

Then, in what seemed like a matter of seconds, the horror got worse: the gunman turned his attention on Peterson.

Apparently out of ammunition in his shotgun, the gunman "pulled out a handgun and began shooting at me," said Peterson.
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Chicago Tribune, February 15, 2008 Newseum Image

February 15, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Chicago Tribune:

NIU students hold vigils on shaken campus

By JOSH NOEL 

Students gathered on a corner of the Northern Illinois University campus late Thursday night to comfort each other after the day's deadly shooting shattered the school's usual collegiate calm.

Around 200 students and faculty huddled together to say prayers, sing "Amazing Grace" and light candles in the cold night. During the ceremony, law enforcement officials carried bags of evidence in and out of the student center behind the courtyard where the vigil participants stood.

Dan Betts, 26, a geology student from Downers Grove, carried a sign reading "NIU Let's Stay 2gether." He said the shootings had unified students all across campus.

"It's everyone coming together and seeing friendly faces they haven't been able to get in touch with during the day," Betts said. "Even people who didn't know someone in there has been touched by this."
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See Also:
"School Shootings (1997-2008)"
Links to the News
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Newsday, February 14, 2008 Newseum Image

February 14, 2008: An excerpt from a story in Newsday:

Clemens, McNamee testify to government officials

By JIM BAUMBACH and ROBERT E. KESSLER

WASHINGTON -- Facing possible perjury and obstruction of justice charges, Roger Clemens held his ground Wednesday as he was hit with a fusillade of assertions he lied in denying having used steroids or human growth hormone.

On this monumental day in baseball's steroids history, there were affidavits, sharp skepticism and the opinion of one doctor -- each aimed at refuting Clemens' continued professions of innocence or backing claims by Brian McNamee, his chief accuser and former trainer.

The affidavits included excerpts from Andy Pettitte, Pettitte's wife Laura, and former Yankee Chuck Knoblauch. House Oversight Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) read the excerpts to both Clemens and McNamee as they sat at the same table, separated only by a lawyer for the Mitchell Commission, which composed the steroids report for Major League Baseball.

Several congressmen blasted McNamee as well, saying he undermined any credibility he might have by telling varying stories or manufacturing ones about his relationship with Clemens.

What happens next? Sources said after the hearing that no decision has been made whether to pass the investigation to the Department of Justice. But with both Clemens and McNamee claiming truthfulness, someone committed perjury.
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The Washington Post, February 13, 2008 Newseum Image

February 13, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Washington Post:

Winning Streak Extends To District, Md. and Va.

By DAN BALZ and TIM CRAIG 

Sen. Barack Obama swamped Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in Maryland, Virginia and the District yesterday, extending his post-Super Tuesday winning streak and forcing Clinton onto the defensive as the Democratic presidential race moves toward a showdown in Ohio and Texas on March 4.

On a day when there was huge turnout in the area, the senator from Illinois won Virginia with about 64 percent of the vote. In Maryland, where the polls were kept open an additional 90 minutes because of bad weather, he was winning with about 60 percent to Clinton's 37 percent. He was headed for an even bigger win in the District, where he was attracting about 75 percent of the vote.





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The Boston Globe, February 6, 2008 Newseum Image

February 6, 2008
The Boston Globe






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The News Journal, February 6, 2008 Newseum Image

February 6, 2008
The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware)







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Home News Tribune, February 6, 2008 Newseum Image

February 6, 2008
Home News Tribune (East Brunswick, New Jersey)







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The Charleston Gazette, February 6, 2008 Newseum Image

February 6, 2008
The Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)








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The Anniston Star, February 6, 2008 Newseum Image

February 6, 2008
The Anniston Star (Alabama)







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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 6, 2008, Newseum Image

February 6, 2008
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution








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Daily News, February 4, 2008 Newseum Image

February 4, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Daily News: 

Giants stun Patriots to win Super Bowl

BY RALPH VACCHIANO

GLENDALE, Ariz. - The imperfect Giants pulled off the perfect upset on Sunday night.

In what will go down as one of the biggest shockers in the history of the NFL, the surprising Giants ended their wildest season ever by stopping the New England Patriots' quest for perfection. They stunned the previously undefeated Pats, 17-14, in Super Bowl XLII to win their third Super Bowl championship and first in 17 years.

And they did it in typical heart-stopping fashion, as Eli Manning, the Super Bowl MVP, twice led them back from fourth-quarter deficits. Even after he threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 39 seconds remaining, the Giants' defense had to withstand one last assault by the Patriots' record-setting offense.

When they did, the Patriots (18-1) had fallen from the ranks of the unbeaten, setting off a celebration that will stretch from Miami, home of the '72 Dolphins - still the lone unbeaten team in NFL history - right up the Canyon of Heroes tomorrow.

"We were trying not to make this another feel-good story or another Patriots dynasty story," defensive end Michael Strahan said. "We were trying to start our own dynasty. A New York Giants dynasty."

"We shocked the world," added linebacker Antonio Pierce. "But not ourselves."
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Newsday, February 4, 2008 Newseum Image

February 4, 2008
Newsday





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New York Post, February 4, 2008 Newseum Image

February 4, 2008
New York Post





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The Telegraph, February 4, 2008 Newseum Image

February 4, 2008
The Telegraph (Nashua, NH)





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Boston Globe, February 4, 2008 Newseum Image

February 4, 2008
The Boston Globe






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Cape Cod Times, February 4, 2008 Newseum Image

February 4, 2008
Cape Cod Times